Raisin Bread

Friday, March 4, 2011

Posted by Kirbie / 3 comments » / Bread, Recipes

A while back I made raisin rolls using the tangzhong method, a natural method that creates a wonderfully soft and fluffy bread. For those of you unfamiliar with the tangzhong method, it’s a method described in a chinese book “65 degrees tangzhong method” which creates a super soft and fluffy bread. It seems to work very well. I’ve gotten an overwhelming response from others who have tried this great method for baking bread. You can read more about making the tangzhong here.

This time I decided to make a loaf of raisin bread. I used to love raisin bread as a kid. The sweet, plump little dried bits of fruit taste delicious in this sweet fluffy bread. I do need to work on creating a more even loaf. Mine always seems slightly lopsided.

I tried to check out the 65 degrees book a while back. There is a large selection of chinese books at the library near my parent’s house. I was on the waitlist for a few months, but just last week, the book finally came in. My mom is going to help translate the recipes. I can’t wait to try out some more recipes. Until then, I’ll continue experimenting with the milk bread, which has been my favorite recipe so far.

A slice of this (or a large chunk in my case) is a perfect breakfast treat. I am submitting this post to Yeastspotting.

Raisin Bread (adapted from two of Christine’s recipes here and here,which she adapted from the 65 degrees book)
Yields 1 loaf

Ingredients:

2½ cups bread flour
3tbsp+2tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
½ cup milk
120g tangzhong (click here for making tangzhong)
2 tsp instant yeast
3 tbsp butter (cut into small pieces, softened at room temperature)
1 cup of raisins

Directions
1. Combine the flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast in a bowl of a stand mixer. Make a well in the center. Add in all wet ingredients: milk, egg and tangzhong. Fit the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer and begin mixing on medium speed and knead until your dough comes together and then add in the butter and continue kneading. Keep kneading until the dough is smooth, not too sticky on the surface and elastic. I kneaded the dough for about 18-20 minutes. Each mixer may vary.

When the dough is ready, you should be able to take a chunk of dough and stretch it to a very thin membrane before it breaks. When it does break, the break should be form a circle.

2. Knead the dough into a ball shape. Take a large bowl and grease with oil. Place dough into greased bowl and cover with a wet towel. Let it proof until it’s doubled in size, about 40 minutes.
3. Transfer to a clean surface. Divide the dough into four equal portions. Knead into balls. Cover with cling wrap, let rest for 15 minutes.
4. Roll out each portion of the dough with a rolling pin into an oval shape. Take one end of the dough and fold to meet the middle of the oval. Take the other end and fold to meet on top.

5. Flip dough over with the folds facing down,and flatten dough with rolling pin.

6. Flip dough over so the folds face up. Sprinkle raisins across the dough then use rolling pin to roll the raisins into the dough. Now roll the dough up. (the picture below is one I took of a plain milk bread I made previously without adding raisins.) Place each of the rolls into the bread pan and put a piece of plastic wrap over the rolls. Let them rise until double the size, approximately another 40 minutes.